Britain explored

BRITAIN EXPLORED

THE GEOGRAPHY

Great Britain can be divided into two major natural regions:

In the Highland zone (so north and west of G.B.), rocks are hard and old, the soils poor and stony, in addition some areas are difficult to reach. This means that these areas are thinly populated except where coal and iron have been discovered.

The Lowland (south and east) is characterized  by groups of hills which alternate with areas of lowland; there soils are deeper and richer and the weather is drier and suitable for farming. As a result this area is densely populated.

So population in Britain is not evenly spread, some large areas like much of Scotland contain fewer than 100 people per square kilometre. Whereas cities as London, Liverpool and Manchester have an extremely dense population.

Climate in Britain is unpredictable. Average temperatures in England and Wales vary from 4° in winter and 16° in Summer. In Scotland weather is just a little bit cooler thank to the Gulf stream, which brings warm water and air. The western parts of Britain are wetter than the east because the wind brings rain from the Atlantic to the western hills.

Over three quarter of Britain's land is used for farming,  farms produce almost half of Britain food requirements (especially wheat, milk, eggs and sugar)

THE UNITED KINGDOM

Great Britain_geographical expression   United Kingdom_political expression

Great Britain+Ireland_British isles

The British isles are shared by two independent States: the Republic of Ireland (Dublin), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (London).

Great Britain is composed by three nations which were separate before: England, Scotland and Wales.

In 1651 Scotland was united with England and Wales although it kept its own Parliament, in 1707 with the Act of Union the Scottish Parliament was abolished. 1715-45 rebellions by Jacobites who wanted a Catholic king; they were defeated. Since 1999 Scotland had its own Parliament.

In 1536 an Act of Union brought Wales into the English system. Since 1999 Wales has had its own National Assembly in Cardiff.

Celts, who'd lived in Britain until the fourth century, spoke Welsh and Gaelic. The language spoken by Anglo-Saxons (who drove the Celts out when they invaded Britain) formed the basis of English. Now Welsh is spoken by the 20% of the population of Wales and Gaelic is used in the Republic of Ireland and in Scotland.

1800 act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland. 1845-49 the Great Famine caused by the failure of the Irish Potato harvest. This halved the population of Ireland. 1916 The Easter Rising: Irish nationalists rebelled and its party set up the Irish Republican Army (IRA). 1922 Partition of Ireland. Ireland was split into Irish Free State (The Catholic South), now Irish Republic, and the Protestant north which continued to be part of the United Kingdom. 1972 Direct rule from London replaced the Northern Irish Parliament.

1998 the Good Friday Agreement: an elected National Assembly for Northern Ireland, including representatives of both Protestant and Catholic communities was created.

THE CONSTITUTION

Britain hasn't a written Constitution.

The constitution has three branches: Parliament, Government and the law courts.

Parliament is formed by two braches: the House of Commons whose members are known as MPs (members of parliament); and the House of Lords whose members named peers are not elected; 91 are hereditary peers, some are life peers, there are senior judges(law lords) and Church of England Archbishops and Bishops.

The Parliament: makes Laws; provides money for government, through taxation; examines government policy, administration and spending and debates political questions.

Both the parts of Parliament can introduce a Bill (proposal for a new law), which as a matter of fact is often proposed by the Government. As both the Houses agree on a text (the House of Lords can only postpone the process) the bill is sent to the Queen for her signature (Royal assent).

The government leader is the Prime Minister, who's also a Mp. He leads the majority Party; runs the Government; designates Cabinet ministers.

The Prime Minister is advised by a Cabinet, of about 20 other ministers. Departments and ministries are run by civil servant, who are permanent officials.

The Queen is the head of State although she has little direct power.

The crown in future will pass to the eldest child (whether son or daughter). The Sovereign: opens Parliament, approves the appointment of the Prime Minister, gives her Royal Assent to bills, gives honours as medals.., she is the head of the Commonwealth, of the Church of England and the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.

Many members of the Royal Family take part to official duties in Britain and abroad. The Royal Family is also financed by government funds. Parliament has the effective control of the monarch's finances.

POLITICS

UK is divided into 650 parliamentary constituencies; who gets more votes wins. The system in force is "the first pass the post". This means that who comes second doesn't get anything.

The leader of the party with most seats becomes Prime Minister and forms a Government. The leader of the second biggest Party forms the Shadow Cabinet (opposition).

The two major parties are Labour and Conservatives (there are also the Liberal Democratic Alliance since 1983, which was formed by the melting between Social Democrats and Liberals; some Liberals formed an independent Party.)

Margaret Thatcher (conservative) was the first woman Prime Minister.

In 1994 Tony Blair become leader of the Labour Party, which he called New Labour, and won the general election in 1997.

Under the Labour Government, after a referendum was created a stronger local government in Scotland, Wales and London, sometimes in contrast with the national government.

The key words of the Conservative Party Manifesto are independence, Pride of ownership and One Nation of free. On the contrary key words for the Labour Party are change and the socialist philosophy of community.

A British Government is elected for up to five years, unless it is defeated in Parliament on a major issue.

The Prime Minister decides a suitable (for the party) date for elections; then he asks to the Sovereign to dissolve the Parliament. Voting takes place on Polling day. Finally the leader of the winning Party is formally invited by the Sovereign to form a government.

THE LOW

British law comes from: laws made in Parliament and Common law, based on previous judgements and customs.

The most common kind of low court is the magistrates' court, which can impose fines or prison sentences for up to six months. More serious cases are judged by the Crown court. County Courts deal with Civil cases (divorce, bankrupt.). Appeals (process for requesting a formal change to an official decision) are heard by higher Courts. Moreover the legal system includes juvenile courts, coroner's courts, administrative tribunals and Tribunals.

People in law cases: Solicitors prepare legal documents etc. today they may represent clients in more kind of courts. Barristers defend or prosecute in higher courts.

Judges. A jury, composed by 12 ordinary people, who listen to evidences and decide whether the accused is innocent or not. If he's considered guilty, it's the judge concern to decide the punishment. Magistrates judges causes in lower courts. Coroners inquire into violent or unnatural deaths. Clerks of the court are in charge with administrative and legal matters.

Each Britain Police force has its own area. In general they work independently under their own Chief Constables except for London. Police duties are varied: from traffic control to more specialized departments. Traditionally policemen are armed only with truncheons. Now the number of special units trained in crowd and riot control and in the use of firearms is increasing; as also the cases of police corruption and racism.

Some of the punishments available for judges: Prison:the higher punishment is life imprisonment; suspended sentences: the offender does not go to prison unless he commits another offence, Probation: house arrest, Youth custody in special centres, short disciplinary training in a detention centre, Community service, Compensation, paying ore working for one's victim, fines, disqualification from driving.

BRITAIN AND THE WOLD

The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 53 independent states. This all began when Britain's older colonies (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa) became independent. Now Britain has only 14 'dependent territories', which rely on Britain for their defence. The modern Commonwealth includes republics (India) and other monarchies.

Before the immigration act of 1962, all Commonwealth citizens could enter the country and look for work. Now the percentage of non-whites has increase up to 10%, but ethnic minorities are often unemployed or in low-jobs. This, plus racial discriminations have contributed to racial violence.

Church Christian membership is 13% in England and 80% in Northern Ireland. The main Christian religious groups are: Anglicans75%; Catholics10%; Nonconformists: members of other Protestant churches (Baptists, Presbyterians..). Non-Christian: Muslims2%, Hindus1%;Jews; No Religion: nearly 50% of the population of Great Britain, especially young.

Britain was the sixth country to join the European Community in 1973; this was confirmed by a referendum in 1975. Britain's membership was somewhat difficult, for ex. there were arguments about financial and agricultural policies. Anyway, Britain's poorer regions have benefited in 1985 from Union's funds; nearly half of Britain's trade is within the European Union and it is the major contributor to the Union funds.

The idea of a tunnel under the sea was developed, in practical terms, only in 1987 an Anglo-French group named Eurotunnel which constructed a system linking Britain and French. The Channel Tunnel Operates since 1995 and it accounted the 12% of all traffic to and from the UK.

ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Britain has big areas of open countryside such as National Parks and also protected sites of architectural and historical value. As a matter of fact the area covered by woodland and forest doubled and now has reach the 10% of Britain's land. (some of these areas are protected by the National Trust). Furthermore the Uk signed the Kyoto Protocol and so it has reduced the emissions of carbon dioxide.

But, even if Britain now is less polluted than before and some attempts have been made to safeguard natural landscapes other serious threats to the environment remain such as acid rain, the pollution caused by cars and lorries, the pollution of the sea, especially the North Sea, the spread of housing.

Britain has loads of energy resources, it is the major producer of oil, natural gas and coal thank to the discover of oil and gas reserves in the North sea. Coal is still important for the production of heat but coal burning is strictly controlled. Moreover the use of nuclear power is playing an important part; even if there is a dispute on its risks and benefits: nuclear power is clean, efficient and safe but on the other hand accidents such as the Chernobyl one led to the spread of fear and doubts about its safety. However Britain has 14 nuclear power stations in operation, but maybe others sources of energy as the renewable have to be considered.

Education

Education is compulsory from the age of five to the age of sixteen. The Department of Skills controls the school system but also local education authorities and head teachers have considerable powers. In the past there was a school selection at eleven but now comprehensive secondary schools are spread, accepting children of all abilities.

The school system is structured like that:

There's the pre-school (not compulsory 3-5) which is gaining an increasing importance; the primary school (5-11), the secondary school (11-16) and then the sixth form (16-18) where pupils can decide for a vocational qualification ( tourism, secretarial) or for an A levels to get then in university or professional training; others continue in full-time education.

Parents can choose between state schools or fee-paying independent schools.

There are nearly 100 universities in Britain plus other institutions as colleges; universities take students on the basis of their A level results but they can also decide to interview them . Undergraduate courses generally last for 3 years, or longer for subjects like medicine or architecture and foreign languages, they all lead to Bachelor's degree in Arts or Science. Then there are different postgraduate degrees.

A system of grants help students, representing a possible source of their income.

Business and Economy

A nation's industries can be split into three sectors: the primary which deals with raw materials, the manufacturing sector concerned with the processing of these goods, and then the service sector (transport.).  Now the primary and the manufacturing sectors haven't got the importance and the workforce they had before; now service industries, like banking and catering, are employing even more people.

Privatisation_ between 1930 and 1940 even more services and also companies in economic difficulties (to protect jobs) were nationalised under huge state-owned corporations.

In the '80 the Conservative party made nationalised industries return to the private sector.

Share ownership_ So with the sale of state-owned industries the share ownership has increased. This means that State corporations were turned into companies whose shares could be bought and sold on the stock market. These shares are owned by private individuals, large financial institutions (insurance companies.).

The city of London_ London is the centre of finance, "the city" of London is its financial district. Although  hundreds of thousands of people work there by day, only less of 10 thousand people actually live within that area. Even though the city is central to international finance it seems to be even more detached and independent of the British domestic economy

The Bank of England is Britain's central reserve bank, it controls the other British banks, issues banknotes(mettere in circolazione).

The London stock exchange_ its membership became saleable to overseas companies, and its commissions became negotiable in 1986. International Exchanges based in the city form an international market where materials and services can be bought and sold.

Lloyd's of London is a huge insurance service which ensures everything and the 75% of its incomes comes from outside Britain.

EMPLOYMENT

In the year 2000 Britain's workforce has reached the 50% of the total population

People are employed in the three sectors; employment is also divided into sections according to the kind of work (professional, manual, non-manual work) and social class. A surgeon for instance is a professional in the service sector, while a steelworker is a manual worker in the manufacturing sector. The number of part-time jobs for women has arisen as the number of self-employed people. There are still some discriminations against women, for ex. The average full-time wage for women is 80% of the male average and certain high paid works are only developed by men.

Now some new jobs has come out: for ex. The work opportunities offered by the new technology (call centres, computers.). The workforce is becoming more flexible making the idea of "a job for life" disappear.

Some important goals have been reached: the improvement in pay and working conditions, the increasing of holidays, the number of working hours in a week has fallen, a minimum hourly wage has been introduced, the age of retirement has been fixed (65/60).

But others especially women and part-time workers in the service industries were not so lucky, however there was a decrease in the number of strikes (except when job cuts occur.)

THE FAMILY

Family patterns are changing more and more. A smaller family has in practice replaced the extended one, but the phenomenon of remarriage has risen; this means that divorces has increase, as the number of single parents and children with different parents (and also babies outside marriage). Concerning women, now they get married later, at about 27; despite the proportion of married women working has increased, is the woman who attends to domestic life. So Britain has a high percentage of working mothers in comparison to other countries but it has too low provisions for maternity leave and child care.

there is a wide section of youth in Britain, from punks to rich-family pupils, young conservatives etc. What's sure is that they have more freedom and they're more spoilt than ever also because the standard of living is higher than years ago. They search for the independence, but often it is financially impossible.

There are loads of problems related with young people such as discipline and motivation problems at school, crime and drug-taking, overweight.

THE COST OF LIVING

British people now spend less in food and more in housing and transport. The standard of living is higher for many people, so they spend on leisure, holidays, luxurious items. The use of credit cards and bank loans has become more common.

On the other hand for unemployed, single parents and people living on the state pension is not like that. Even though inflation fell the strong pound caused problems for business and there were disputes on Britain's joining the European Monetary system.

Although income distribution has not that changed, the sources of income do, income from activities such as saving, renting and investing in the stock market has risen in spite of income from employment. Also the proportion of money spent on private health care and private pensions has gone up.

The gap between rich (popstars, supermarket owners, actors, writers, member of the aristocracy and the Royal family)  and poor (unemployed, homeless, some ethnic groups) becoming more and more wider.

HOUSING

Nearly 70% of people in Britain live in their own homes. The number of houses has increased together with the number of people who own their own homes maybe since it is cheaper in the long term to buy a home than to rent one; but a mortgage loan (from a building society or a bank) is usually needed. House prices tend to adjust according to how much money people are earning, and the cost also varies according to the area (in the south-east are more expansive). The number of accommodation for single householders, especially old people is growing, and also sheltered housing provides homes for elderly and disabled people.

Most of the old slum houses have been replaced by large square blocks of flats criticised as being badly built.

There are many different kinds of housing in Britain, from country cottages to flats in the centre of town. People often prefer houses, possibly with a garden.

The need for housing in the south has produced new developments, for instance in the East End of London a new large-scale building has started to provide accommodations for people who have to work in the city of London. The speed of the building means less environmental planning (some of the green Belt which used to surround London is now used for housing).

The number of homeless people has doubled. One in five families in London live in unsatisfactory conditions.

TRANSPORT

The use of cars in Britain has increased, by the year 2000 cars, taxis and motorcycles represented the 85% of all passenger transport.